by David Skuy
Alexandra opened her mouth to say something but was cut off.
“Alex. We should focus on the hockey,” said Rebecca, who was lining up next to her.
Matt wisely skated to the bench. Zachary leaned over for the faceoff and Charlie followed suit. No chance he was getting between Alexandra and Trisha. Pretty funny, he thought, since, as their centre, that’s exactly where he was.
“You just can’t stop yourself from laughing, can you, Joyce?” Alexandra said.
He could not let that go. “I’m in my happy place — so maybe you could give me a break.”
“Charlie is right. You definitely need to hit your Happy button,” Trisha said. “You’re bringing everybody down.”
Cummings came over with a puck, Julia by her side. Alexandra shook her head and pressed down on her stick. Julia lined up next to Trisha.
“Get ready, boys,” Cummings said.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Trisha had put her stick across Julia’s. Julia pulled hers away, but as soon as she put it back down, Trisha did it again. And again.
“Set up, Charlie,” Cummings said.
He had been distracted by the stick drama.
Cummings blew her whistle and straightened up. “Can you two girls line up properly, please,” she said to Julia and Trisha.
Trisha grinned and put her stick to her side. Julia scowled and held her stick at her waist.
Cummings held the puck over the centres’ sticks and let it drop. Zachary was a winger, but he had quick reflexes and Charlie wasn’t going to take anything for granted. With a reverse grip, he timed his sweep well, and sent the puck spinning back to Scott. Zachary sidestepped him and pressured the puck. Scott hesitated, and then slid it across to Sophie. She took a few steps across the blue line to her right and banged it off the boards, where Trisha and Julia gave chase.
Trisha got her stick on the puck first and knocked it forward, but Julia established body position and cut her off. Trisha could do nothing but watch the puck roll to Michelle. Charlie veered towards the puck and saw Trisha give Julia a shove with both hands.
Michelle saw Charlie coming, and she passed quickly to Zachary at the bottom of the centre ice circle. He took it on his backhand and headed up the ice. Alexandra cut him off, but not before he had gained the red line and fired it in deep. Scott was on it first, and he was able to whack it up the boards to Alexandra. Charlie hustled to support her; and was surprised when she passed him the puck.
She might hate him, but it seemed that would not interfere with her play, which made him feel better.
Trisha broke across the neutral zone wide open. Julia was sitting on the ice near the boards. He dished the puck, and Trisha took it without breaking stride. He set off, without much hope of catching her. Nick and Michelle backed up warily. Three metres from the blue line Trisha bounced outside to her left, puck on her backhand, with Nick content to let her run herself into the boards. By this time Charlie had crossed the blue line. Trisha had her head down and she was bombing down the wall; and then without slowing she spun almost backwards and whipped her stick around her right hip on her forehand.
The pass was timed perfectly, and Charlie was in alone. Nick and Michelle had been caught napping. Cassie came out to challenge him, and he was about to try a low shot to her glove side when he caught a glimpse of a green sweater flying past and heading to the right post. That decided things. He cut to his left on his forehand, drawing Cassie with him, and then slid a hard pass back to the right. Alexandra calmly deflected the puck into the open net.
Charlie and Alexandra looked at each other.
“Nice pass,” she said hesitantly, and skated to centre.
He felt a glove tap the back of his helmet. “Slick pass, dude,” Trisha said to him. “Even she couldn’t miss that.”
For some reason, it bothered him to hear her diss Alexandra. But Trisha’s pass to him had been sweet, and he had to give her props for that.
“Your pass was slick too,” he said. “I didn’t expect it.”
“Keep two hands on the stick and go to the net,” she said. “You’ll score lots of goals that way with me.” She tapped his shin pads with her stick and skated back.
That bothered him too. Like he needed to be told how to play?
“Keep up, Jules,” Trisha said. “That was too easy.”
Julia did not move a muscle. She remained bent at the hips, waiting for the faceoff. Trisha laughed and casually crossed her stick over Julia’s. Julia chopped on the shaft of Trisha’s stick and it bounced on the ice.
“Okay. Could you two behave?” Cummings said.
“How about her tripping me?” Julia said.
Trisha smirked. “Can’t we just play hockey? All this complaining …”
Charlie thought he heard Trisha mutter, “Miss Goody Two-Shoes,” under her breath.
Cummings looked at both girls intently. She thumbed over her shoulder. “Charlie’s line to the bench,” she said. She grabbed Trisha’s sweater as she skated by. “Do that again and you’re off the team.”
“What do you mean? … I didn’t … I don’t know what …” Trisha gave her head a shake, stormed off the ice, and sat in a huff on the bench. “Typical favouritism. Kick me off for setting up a goal. Makes sense to me.”
Charlie wanted to be anywhere but sandwiched between two girls who hated each other and seemed to thoroughly dislike him too. He braced himself for the inevitable storm.
“Cummings is cracked,” Trisha said to him. “Can you believe her?”
“I didn’t really see what happened.”
“What happened is Princess Julia chopped my stick in half, and I get in trouble.”
“As if you’re totally innocent,” Alexandra said. “Julia doesn’t lose her temper for nothing.”
“Like at the ball hockey game?”
“Like … whatever.”
“That was clever.”
“Clever was our line getting kicked off the ice because of you.”
Trisha elbowed Charlie. “She scores an empty-net goal and suddenly she’s The Great One.” She leaned forward. “A chair could have scored.”
Alexandra leaned forward. “I’m getting off this line. No chance I’m playing with her.”
“Whatever.”
“Whatever.”
Trisha wasn’t done, though. “Alex, tell your bud Jules to work on her skating. She’s falling all over the place.” She elbowed Charlie again and chuckled.
Charlie suddenly thought back to their goal — and Julia sitting on the ice. Julia would never just fall. He glanced at Trisha, and she smiled back. Had she tripped Julia? It would explain why Trisha had been so wide open.
Matt got hold of the puck and made a sweet move at the blue line to gain the zone. Emily called for it in the slot. He slid it over and Emily blasted it in for a goal. Julia and her friends might not like those two girls, but boy could they play!
18
BRIGHT LIGHTS
The rain was coming down in buckets. Charlie had never seen so much water pour from the sky. It was raining so hard his mother let him borrow an umbrella, even though it was almost guaranteed never to make it back home again. Still he was soaked to the skin. Pudge shivered next to him, equally wet.
“Maybe we should call the skate-a-thon off,” Pudge said. “Attendance is gonna suffer with this weather.”
“We won’t get a bus again, and we’ll lose our deposit,” Charlie replied. Pudge didn’t answer, and who could blame him for wanting to go home. Not a single member of the committee had shown, apart from the ever-reliable Dalton. Charlie had sent one of the buses back, and this one was less than half full — a waste, as A.J. had predicted.
A fresh crack of thunder sounded, as if to punctuate his dire thoughts, which not even the arrival of Scott, Nick, Zachary and Matt could lighten. Ms Cummings tapped Charlie’s umbrella with hers.
“Are we about ready to go?” she said. “It’s a long drive to Humberside, especially with the
rain. The driver told me he has to make another pick-up after he drops us off, and he really would like to get a move on.”
Charlie cast his eyes around. “May as well,” he said.
She put her foot on the first step. “We can leave now,” she said to the driver, and went into the bus.
Charlie took a final look around. The rain was skipping off the pavement, leaving a fine mist hovering, like a low-lying fog. It was actually kind of cool, and he allowed himself the luxury of watching, if only for a few seconds, to distract himself from what was happening. In the distance, he made out the form of two umbrellas, and as they got closer, he detected three people huddled underneath. One umbrella tilted up slightly.
“Sorry, Charlie,” Julia said. “I had to haul these two out of bed.”
Rebecca and Alexandra peered out from under a small umbrella.
“And I’m going to be thanking you for a long time,” Alexandra grumbled.
“We’re glad you made it, anyway,” Charlie said. “You’re lucky. We were just about to leave.”
“I sure feel lucky,” Alexandra said.
“We should get into the bus,” Rebecca said.
“Good idea,” Charlie said. “By any chance, did you bring your pledge sheets and permission forms?”
Rebecca and Alexandra handed him their permission forms. “What pledge sheets?” Alexandra said.
“You know … the pledges … the sheets.”
“I told you guys,” Julia said, handing hers over. “Didn’t you get any pledges?”
“Sorry, Jules,” Alexandra said. “I forgot. My bad.”
“How could you forget?” Charlie said, his frustration rising to the surface. “Why do you think we’re doing this?”
“I’m asking myself that same question,” Alexandra shot back.
“We can get sponsors after,” Rebecca suggested.
“That’s probably okay,” Julia said. “Right, Charlie?”
With only ten students participating he wasn’t about to say no. “Fine. No problem. But we should get going.” He noticed Julia scowl at her two friends as they got into the bus. Charlie wanted to ask Julia about the practice yesterday, but she went in before he had the chance. There would be time later, so he didn’t sweat it. Charlie followed, and the driver closed the door. The three girls sat up front. Dalton was talking to Ms Cummings. The guys were at the back. He took a seat behind Pudge.
He tapped Pudge on the shoulder and said, “I think we should sneak by without losing money. Even if the other kids who registered didn’t show, they might have still raised some money.”
“Did we get enough pledges up front to pay for the ice time?”
Charlie held up a cheque. “I gave the money we’ve collected so far to my mom, and she wrote me this to cover it. I’ve already collected some money from you, Julia, Zachary, Matt and, believe it or not, Scott!”
“I guess pigs can fly,” Pudge said.
“The rest will pay when they collect on their pledges. Oh, and Dalton scored big — he got two hundred fifty dollars in pledges. That dude is amazing.”
“He might have got this wrong,” Pudge said. “Our fellow students didn’t exactly get too stoked about the skate-a-thon.”
“I guess it wasn’t the best idea,” Charlie said.
“It was a good idea and it should’ve worked.”
“But it’s like no one cares.”
“No one cares about what?” Scott said.
Charlie was taken aback. He must have said that louder than he wanted.
“We were just talking about the fundraising,” Pudge said. “Charlie’s right. Except for … I don’t know … a handful of people … like the people on this bus, no one seems to care if the school closes.”
“It’s been one big epic fail,” Charlie said, “and this skate-a-nightmare isn’t going to set any fundraising records either.”
For practically the first time since he’d met Scott, his friend leaned back in his seat without saying anything. Nick looked out the window. A depressing silence spread. Charlie felt helpless and angry at the same time. Why didn’t people care? Why didn’t they help out? They could raise the money if everyone tried. Instead, it seemed more cool to joke about the school closing, and uncool to do anything about it. It was hopeless. In a few weeks they’d all be at different schools — sooner if this storm destroyed the plastic sheeting. He looked out his window. They were on the ramp to the highway that went around the lake, which meant they still had a long way to go.
A huge thunderclap made him jump out of his seat.
“Is this the end of the world?” Scott said.
“That was like ten thunders all together, times two — or one of Scott’s burps,” Nick said.
“Maybe it wasn’t a burp,” Scott said, crossing his legs and waving his hand in front of his nose.
“You didn’t eat a burrito for breakfast, did you?” Nick said.
“Let me think. There was the bowl of cereal, a granola bar, toast, a banana, half a container of yogurt, another banana, and yes, a burrito from dinner two nights before. Can’t expect me to skate a marathon when I’m half starved.”
Nick began scratching at the window. “Great. A bus with windows that don’t open.”
“It’s not my fault,” Scott said. “Blame the beans.”
That broke the boys up.
“So what’s so amusing?” Alexandra said. She was kneeling on her seat peering over the top.
Charlie struggled to think of an explanation.
“I heard Scott’s name linked to a burrito,” she said. “This could be a long day.” She turned back around.
“I’m glad I didn’t mention the French toast,” Scott whispered to his friends.
The sky lit up as a bolt of lighting illuminated the windows so brightly that Charlie wondered if the driver had turned on the lights. That was followed by yet another massive crash of thunder.
“I might have had two burritos,” Scott said.
No one laughed. The storm was getting a bit scary.
Charlie saw something moving up ahead on the hill that bordered the highway. “That’s kinda strange. Do you see that?” he said to Pudge.
Pudge strained his neck to look.
Charlie heard a loud rumbling.
CRASH!
The next thing he knew he’d been thrown out of his seat. The bus veered violently to the right. Charlie heard a high-pitched squeal, and then felt another crash against the side of the bus, even harder this time. Charlie and Pudge banged into each other, sending Charlie somersaulting over the arm of a chair across the aisle.
CRASH!
The wheels screeched, and then the noise stopped. For a second Charlie thought it was over. Then he felt the sensation of falling.
Pudge fell on him, and then flew off. Charlie spun over, landing on Scott and Nick. He heard Nick gasp for breath. Screams and moans mingled in the air, as Charlie struggled to untangle himself. Charlie looked down, too terrified to utter a sound. The windows were pressing into mud. He could make out bits of rock and tree branches.
It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up.
The bus had slid off the road and rolled.
19
BY A THREAD
“Are you guys okay?” Charlie said loudly.
“I’m good,” Pudge said, sitting up.
“I don’t believe I am seriously injured,” Dalton said from a few rows up.
Then Charlie heard Nick moaning softly.
“Did you hurt something?” he asked urgently.
“My leg — it feels busted,” Nick said between short breaths.
“Help me here, Pudge,” Charlie said.
They turned Nick around as gently as possible so he could lie down. Scott was struggling to sit up, and Dalton went to help him. With the bus flipped on its side, Scott was actually sitting on the windows, leaning against the roof. His left arm dangled down his side. “I can’t feel my arm,” he whispered. “It’s totally dead. I ca
n’t feel anything.”
Charlie couldn’t believe his eyes. Scott’s arm had somehow grown several centimetres.
“You’ve dislocated it, for sure,” Dalton said. “Hold it to your side.”
Scott leaned back against the roof and grasped his arm with his other hand.
“Anyone else hurt?” Charlie called out.
“Bashed my knee up pretty good,” Zachary said between clenched teeth.
A flash of lightning lit up the bus. Charlie looked around in horror. His friends had been tossed around like ping-pong balls. And now everyone was lying on the windows, and no one was moving at the front. A crack of thunder unnerved him, and he fought to stay calm.
“Matt’s hurt too,” Pudge told him. “He’s bleeding real bad.”
“I’ll be okay,” Matt said bravely. “It’s only my nose that’s bleeding.”
Charlie’s heart practically jumped out of his chest when he saw his friend. Blood covered the side of his face. There was a gash on his forehead, and blood was oozing out.
Charlie crawled a few metres towards the front. “Ms Cummings? Ms Cummings?” His voice quivered slightly. “Are you okay?”
“She’s hurt,” Julia answered. “Can you come over here?”
“Go ahead, Charlie,” Pudge said. “Check it out.”
Their eyes met. This was bad — scary bad.
“Call 9-1-1,” Charlie said, “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ve got them on the line,” Dalton answered. “The emergency vehicles are on their way.”
Charlie began crawling across the windows to reach the girls. It was awkward, and his pants got soaking wet, but he was too freaked out to care. A second flash of lightning gave him a clear view. His teacher lay on her back clutching her leg, blood trickling down her temple. “Ms Cummings, the bus fell off the road. We’ve been in an accident!” he said to her.
She opened her eyes and raised her head slightly. “Where are we?” she asked. Her head fell back.
Julia clambered across the windows and crouched beside Charlie. Her lower lip shook as she spoke. “We need to get out of here. We’re falling into the lake. Water is coming in.”
